Heaven Can Wait || Eddie Munson Story ||

Magica

It's been several days since I last saw AnnMarie and honestly I was growing antsy to see her. She had come over the morning after our kiss to briefly check on me. I had invited her in, apologizing about the mess and offered her some coffee. We sat comfortably together, making small talk about how the rest of her night went and my plans for the rest of the day before she had to leave. She apparently had promised to take Max and Mike's girlfriend, El, to the mall and Max would be by soon so they could go pick the other girl up. I walked her to the door, sad she was leaving when she caught me completely by surprise. She spun around and hugged me around the middle, pressing firmly against me for just a second before she pulled away with a shy little smile.

"Bye, Eds. I'll see you later!" she called over her shoulder as she ran off into her yard and out of sight. I flopped over, leaning against the door frame and covered my grin with my hand. The smell of daisies still lingered in the air, making my head spin. We were making progress.

We didn't talk about the kiss or what any of this meant, just further confirming my theory that she needed things to go slow. But the fact that she didn't run or hide and was still here and wanting to be around me was promising.

Since then, I have started working at Tony's and have been adjusting to my new schedule, but I have not been able to see her as much as I would like. I had stopped by The Avenue yesterday to pick up the bands' check from the last show we did and was hoping to see her, but Kate was working behind the bar instead. They apparently liked our sound a lot and wanted us to come back a few times a week as a regular act. I was practically bouncing with excitement at the idea of telling Rie and the guys.

"Hey, no AnnMarie tonight?" I had asked Kate on my way out, just to be sure.

"Hey, Eddie. No not tonight. She has been working overtime lately and has been exhausted so I told her to take tonight off."

I furrowed my brow, concerned. "Is everything alright?"

"She wouldn't say," Kate answered with a shrug. "She's off tonight and she requested tomorrow off as well, something about an important game she has to go to."

I remember smiling at that. D&D at Dustin's is tonight and I am glad she remembered. I hope she will tell me if she is alright tonight. I don't want to push too hard, but Kate said she worked eight days in a row last week and each shift was 20 hours long. She was on her feet throughout each shift. The bar was open 24/7 and worked as a restaurant during the day and closed for two hours each night so they could convert the space into a "nightclub" before the night rush headed in. AnnMarie typically worked nights so as I was leaving for work, she was coming home. I would stop to say hey before heading out, but the last few days she wasn't making it back before I had to leave and now, I know why.

The phone starts ringing in the living room and I head out to grab it. As soon as pick it up, I can hear Dustin yelling on the other line. I hold the receiver a few inches from my ear, wincing.

"I swear to God if you don't shut the hell up, I will smack the shit out of you!"

"Hey man," I say.

"Eddie!" he bellows. "Listen, does AnnMarie already have her character information? Because Mike is freaking out about taking too long to get into the campaign so if she doesn't, I was going to come up with her character and calculate her stats before you got here so he doesn't have an aneurysm."

"She doesn't have it yet, but I've already done it Dustin. I was going to offer her a ride over and brief her on the way," I reassure him.

"How come he can bring girls along, but El isn't allowed to come?" I hear Mike grumbling in the background.